Question I: What kind of gift wisdom is

IT IS TO BE NOTED with St. Bonaventure de septem Itineribus aeternitatis, Itinere 3. dist. 3. art. 3. et de septem donis, de dono Sapientiae, cap. 1. et 3. p. Centiloquii, sect. 45. et aliis locis, Multas enumerari sapientias. I omit the wisdom of the flesh, an enemy to God, as is said Rom. 8., and the wisdom of this world; which is called by St. James, cap. 3., animal, and diabolical, and by Paul is called foolishness, since it prefers transitory goods to eternal ones, as iron to gold. See St. Bonaventure LL. cc.

THERE is Uncreated Wisdom, whose panegyrics the author of Sap. cap. 7. wove together: The brightness of eternal light, the unspotted mirror, etc., which the Holy Doctor elegantly pursues in his Commentary, and St. Augustine lib. 1. de Genes. ad litt. cap 5. Now this wisdom is the SON OF GOD, not a Gift, but the Giver of gifts.

A twofold Created Wisdom is GIVEN: one, which is acquired by human study, and is an intellectual virtue, of which Aristotle lib. 1. Metaph. cap. 2. and St. Augustine lib. 14. de Trinit. cap. 1. say that it is the universal cognition of all things divine and human. This indeed can be called wisdom, because it is sapid knowledge, although not perfectly seasoned; although Aristotle in his Ethics brings forward admirable delights in it, yet St. Thomas adds that these are imperfect, because they are not seasoned with the oil of grace.

BUT that Wisdom can have a judgment somewhat right concerning divine things, as Hugh shows super caelestem Hierarchiam, cap. 1.

There is also that Wisdom which deals with the most abstract and divine things, which Aristotle calls Metaphysics; but we more fittingly name it Theology, at whose splendor earthly wisdom has been eclipsed and has dissolved into fictions. We acquire it, however, with labors, faith presupposed.

FURTHER there is also the other, infused Wisdom, as St. James 3. says, whose object is God, not under the aspect of the naked true, but of the true as to be tasted for good; and this is truly Sapid Knowledge. Of this Sap. 11.: The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of Wisdom, etc.

The act of THIS is to contemplate God, not in any manner whatever, but from love with a certain experimental sweetness and affection. Hence St. Augustine 15. de Trinitate, cap. 7. says: Where there is no love (namely, gratuitous), who says that there is any Wisdom? And Bernard serm. 85. in Cant. Nor would I say it is blameworthy, if anyone should define wisdom as the savor of the good. Hence Isidore, lib. 10. Ethymol.: The wise man is so called from savor; for as taste is apt for the discernment of the savor of foods, so the wise man is apt for discerning the savors of things and of causes.

From these you have that the Gift of Wisdom is a supernatural habit, infused into the soul by the Holy Spirit, for knowing God and loving him with relish. It is thus defined: It is a habit, infused by God, rendering the soul easily mobile toward loving and tasting the Gifts out of love, or Charity. Therefore its act is to contemplate God, not in any manner whatever, but from love, with a certain experimental sweetness and affection.

The principal OBJECT, therefore, of Wisdom is God, not under the aspect of the true absolutely; but under the aspect of the true in relation to the aspect of the good, as it is excitatory of the will toward its sapid delectation. Hence Wisdom is called, as it were, sapid knowledge, as the Holy Doctor often says. The quasi-subject of Wisdom is indeed the intellect, but one overflowing its operations into the will, as the sun in the fourth heaven influences the other orbs, and the elements. Therefore the Holy Doctor proves that it does not stop in the intellect lib. de septem donis, De Dono sapientiae, cap. 1. et in Diaeta, tit. 6. cap. 4. et in 1. quaest. 3. Prooem. from Scripture, and the Fathers.

FIRST indeed Eccles. 6. says: For wisdom is according to its name [the doctrine of it], that is, sapid knowledge.

St. Thomas answers quaest. 45. art. 2. ad 2. Tanner disp. 2. quaest. 4. dub. 3. num. 44. et alii, that this does not seem to be the true interpretation of the name wisdom, namely, that it is Wisdom, as it were sapid knowledge.

AGAINST this, because thus the Holy Fathers, cited by the Holy Doctor, interpret it. St. Bernard, sermone 85. in Cant. Nor would I say it is blameworthy, if anyone should define wisdom as the good. Isidore, lib. 10. Ethymol., word Sapiens: The wise man is so called from Savor; for as taste is apt for the discernment of the savor of foods, so the wise man is apt for discerning the savors of things and of causes, as I had noted just above.

He CONFIRMS it from cap. 24. where Wisdom says: My spirit is sweeter than honey.

St. Thomas answers that this is had in the Latin, not in the Greek; but the sense is, that Wisdom is according to its name, that is, Great, nor is it less than its name, that is, Fame. But in the Greek it is read, according to its name, τὸ ὄνομα.

THEN I say that it cannot be without charity. It is proved by the Holy Doctor ad id Sap. 1. Into a malevolent soul Wisdom shall not enter.

It is PROVED by the Holy Doctors, because it makes rightness of judgment: toward itself and of savor concerning divine things, according to the divine rules to which it is connatural, which indeed are through Charity.